Llenroc case renewed

By Paul Nelson

Published 8:05 am, Thursday, July 26, 2012

ALBANY - Two days after a judge dismissed criminal charges against Annie George, the Saratoga County woman has again been indicted on a federal charge that she kept an illegal alien for private financial gain, according to the U.S. attorney general for the Northern District of New York.

Filed Wednesday in federal court in Albany, documents allege George, 40, "concealed, harbored and shielded from detection an illegal alien" from October 2005 until May 2011. She will be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. Thursday by U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe, the same jurist who Monday dismissed criminal charges alleging that George forced an undocumented immigrant to work like a slave in her 30,000-square-foot Llenroc mansion in the Rexford hamlet of Clifton Park and other sites.

In dismissing that case, Sharpe cited the federal government's failure to bring it to trial within 70 days - a violation of the Speedy Trial Act, according to court documents.

If convicted, George, also known as Annie Kolath and Sajimol George, could face up to decade in prison and a $250,000 fine. She was initially arrested in February, indicted by a federal grand jury in April, and pleaded not guilty in May.

Federal prosecutors alleged George confined a servant from India in her homes, and forced the woman to cook, clean and watch George's six children, often from dawn until dusk, seven days a week.

The worker, identified only as "V.M.," labored in Llenroc without a visa for three years and was forced to live out of a closet, prosecutors charged. Prior to Llenroc, the George family employed the woman in homes in Albany and Greene counties, prosecutors said. The government contended V.M. received a fraction of the compensation she earned.